Collaboration swarming

ABSTRACT

A swarm can develop around a piece of content. The swarm can include the original content, changes to the original content, the persons contributing the changes, and metadata, such as comments contributed by members of the swarm. A swarm can also include statistics generated about the content, such as the size of the swarm, the growth and/or death rates of the swarm, the longevity of the swarm, the intensity of the swarm, the persistence of the swarm, and the direction of the swarm. Swarms and their behaviors can be used to validate or invalidate content.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/690,066, filed Jan. 19, 2010, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,280,846,which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.61/224,778, titled “COLLABORATION TOOLS”, filed Jul. 10, 2009 and U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/236,005, titled“PRESENCE-ENABLED INBOX”, filed Jul. 10, 2009, which are all herebyincorporated by reference in their entireties.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/690,028 titled “AUTO-GENERATED AND INFERRED GROUP CHAT PRESENCE”,filed Jan. 19, 2010, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/690,071, titled“INTELLIGENT CO-BROWSING AND CO-EDITING”, filed Jan. 19, 2010, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/690,038, titled “UNIFIED ADDRESSING,SENDING, AND RECEIVING COLLABORATION SERVICE”, filed Jan. 19, 2010, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/690,056, titled “UNIFIED EDITABLE INBOX”,filed Jan. 19, 2010, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/690,075,titled “PRESENCE-ENABLED INBOX”, filed Jan. 19, 2010, all of which arecommonly assigned with this application and are hereby incorporated byreference.

FIELD

This invention pertains to team development of content, and moreparticularly to the development of a swarm around content.

BACKGROUND

When people work together for any reason, they need to be able to sharetheir thoughts with each other. Before everyone had a computer on his orher desk, this would involve circulating a paper copy of the materials,so that each person could comment on the materials. For example, oneperson would draft a document, and circulate it to the other members ofthe group. Each member would, in turn, read the document, add theircomments, and make changes. But while the last person to review thedraft would see the thoughts of all the other members of the group, thefirst person to review the draft would not have any insight into thethoughts of the other group members.

The introduction of desktop computers sped up this process, but did nototherwise enhance it. For example, the document could be circulatedelectronically, rather than on paper, with each person making changesand forwarding the electronic draft to the next person. The documentcould also be stored in a central repository (for example, on a disk ona networked server, that everyone could access), allowing the members toedit a single copy electronically at their convenience. This approachavoided toe problem of members having to wait until the draft wasforwarded to them personally for review.

In fact, the use of computers might have encumbered the process. Forexample, the person who drafted the document could electronicallyforward it to each member of the team. Each team member could thenreview the draft and return their thoughts to the originator. But inthis model, only the originator of the document saw everyone else'sthoughts; no other members were privy to the thoughts of other membersabout the document.

Other electronic models have been developed that essentially mirror the“store and forward” model, but without requiring a set list of members.For example, computerized bulletin board systems allowed any person whocould access the system to comment on anything within the system. Thesemodels have developed into modern tools, such as blogs and socialnetworking systems like Facebook® and Twitter®. (Facebook is aregistered trademark of Facebook, Inc.; Twitter is a registeredtrademark of Twitter, Inc.) But all of these models, like the original“store and forward” model, suffer from the same problems, in that theyare somewhat one-directional and “call and response” in nature.

A need remains for a way to address these and other problems associatedwith the prior art.

SUMMARY

Content is developed by one user. Other users then can add additionalinformation to the content, including changes and comments to theoriginal content. A swarm can thereby develop around the content theswarm can include the content, the additional information provided bythe various users, information about the users themselves, andinformation about the users' actions around that content.

The foregoing and other features, objects, and advantages of theinvention will become more readily apparent from the following detaileddescription, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a swarm developing around a piece of content, according toan embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 shows a system to track the development of the swarm of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows the content validator of FIG. 2 validating content based onthe swarm of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows the statistics generator of FIG. 2 generating statisticsabout the swarm of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 shows the content of FIG. 1 being modified by other members ofthe swarm.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of a procedure for tracking the development ofthe swarm of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows a swarm developing around a piece of content, according toan embodiment of the invention. In FIG. 1, swarm 105 is shown. Swarm 105includes various users, such as Joe 110, Mary 115, John 120, Beverly125, Thomas 130, and Anna 135. Joe 110 began the development of swarm105 by posting content 140, which was the original version of content145. As the other users contributed their additional information (150,155, 160, 165, and 170), this additional content becomes part of content145.

Swarm 105 starts as content 140, which Joe 110 posts in any desiredmanner. “Posting” can include e-mailing content 140 to users 115, 120,125, 130, and 135, saving content 140 in a centralized location,informing users 115, 120, 125, 130, and 135 about content 140, bloggingabout content 140, putting content 140 on a social networking page, orusing any other desired technique that alerts others about the existenceof content 140, either passively or actively. (“Actively” informingothers involves the recipients being made aware of the existence ofcontent 140 as soon as it is posted; “passively” informing othersinvolves the recipients somehow finding out about content 140 as aresult of their own actions.) But as users 115, 120, 125, 130, and 135add their information 150, 155, 160, 145, and 170 to content 145,additional information 150, 155, 160, 165, and 170 becomes part of swarm105. In addition, swarm 105 includes users 110, 115, 120, 125, 130, and135. In other words, the swarm includes the original content, theadditional information, added by other users, information about theusers themselves, and information about the users' actions around thatcontent. A person of ordinary skill in the art will also recognize thatJoe 110 can review additional information 150, 155, 160, 165, and 170and, in response, provide some additional information himself. Thus, theoriginator of the content is not limited in his involvement as a memberof the swarm to only providing the original content.

In contrast to prior art methods of sharing information, swarms candevelop at “chat speed”. That is, rather than one person generatingcontent, forwarding that content to a second person who comments on itand forwards the content and comment to a third person, and so on,swarms can develop as quickly as participants in the swarm act. Forexample, when one user in swarm 105 comments on content 105, thatcomment is immediately accessible to the other members of the swarm,without having to wait for the comment to “circulate”.

Swarms can be pushed content. Pushed content is content that is providedautomatically to the user, without his having to actively retrieve thecontent. For example, most people use e-mail programs to retrieve theire-mails from a mail server. Every so often, the user can check to see ifthere is more e-mail, much like a person would have to walk out to hismailbox to see if any new letters had arrived. This technological modelis called “pull technology”, because the retrieval of the content istriggered by the client “pulling” in the content from its source. Incontrast, “push technology” involves the content being received by theclient at the behest of the source of the content. An example of “pushtechnology” would be instant messaging programs, where the messageappears on the user's computer as soon as it is sent by the originator:the user does not have to do anything to “retrieve” the message.

In addition to being pushed, swarms can be pushed at any speed. Forexample, a change in a swarm can be pushed to the other members of theswarm one character or attribute at a time. That is, every time anindividual character or an attribute of the swarm is changed in theswarm, that change is pushed to the other members of the swarm. But ifthe demands on the system of pushing individual changes out to themembers of the swarm are too great, changes can be pushed in largerintervals: for example, when a user completes a change (such as ane-mail message), or at regular intervals of time (such as every minuteor every 10 minutes), if changes have been made since the last suchpush.

FIG. 1 suggests that original content 140 can be a document. But aperson of ordinary skill in the art will understand that any type ofcontent can be the start of a swarm. Aside from documents, other typesof content that can develop into swarms can include messages (such ase-mail), instant messages accessible to the members of the swarm,images, audio and/or video files, and so on.

Although FIG. 1 shows six members of swarm 105, a person of ordinaryskill in the art gill recognize that there can be any number of membersin a swarm. Further, a person of ordinary skill in the art willrecognize that swarm 105 can be controlled (that is, limited to onlycertain participants) or free-form (that is, open to anyone who wishesto view and comment on the content). Both types of forms have theirbenefits. Controlled swarms tend to stay focused on the topic of thecontent, and can develop significant additional content related to thattopic. Free form swarms, on the other hand, can branch from one topic toanother, identifying related topics of interest not directly addressedby the content.

Swarm 105 can be used to validate content 140. That is, based onadditional information 150, 155, 160, 165, and 170 contributed by users115, 120, 125, 130, and 135 content 140 can be considered to be accurateor inaccurate. For example, if additional information 150, 155, 160,165, and 170 contributed by users 115, 120, 125, 130, and 135 indicatesthat the content 140 is not accurate, swarm 105 can be said toinvalidate content 140. Content validation is discussed further withreference to FIG. 3 below.

Because the participants in the swarm are pan of the swarm, informationabout how the swarm develops can become part of the swarm. For example,the more relevant content is, the more action will be in the swarmaround that content. And the more interesting the content is, the largerthe swarm will be. Thus, statistics about swarm 105 can be useful andcan become part of swarm 105. Statistics are discussed further withreference to FIG. 4 below. A person of ordinary skill in the art willrecognize other metadata about swarm 105 that can also become part ofswarm 105.

At some point, it might be useful to freeze swarm 105. Freezing swarm105 prevents further changes from being made. Members of swami 105 canstill review the content and the history of swarm 105, but they areprevented from making any further changes to swarm 105, includingcommenting on swarm 105 or editing content 145. Freezing swarm 105 mightoccur, for example, if it appears that swarm 105 has fully developed,and there is little benefit to permitting further activity within swarm105.

Swarm 105 can be frozen manually. Which users (whether a member of swarm105 or not) have the authority to freeze swarm 105 can be controlled bypolicies. For example Joe 110, as the user who posted content 140 thatoriginated swarm 105, can have the authority to freeze swarm 105.Alternatively, another user, whether another member of the swarm or athird-party, can have the authority to freeze swarm 105, in addition, aperson of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that pulley can grantmultiple users the authority to freeze swarm 105; authority does nothave to reside in only one user.

In addition, policy can permit a user to unfreeze swarm 105 after it hasbeen frozen. This might be useful if, for example, it turns out thatswarm 105 was frozen prematurely, before all the important contributionshad been made. The policies controlling who can unfreeze a swarm cangrant that authority to the same users who can freeze the swarm, orauthority to unfreeze the swarm can be granted to other users. Forexample, authority to freeze the swarm can be granted to the user whooriginally created the content that triggered the development of theswarm, but authority to unfreeze the swami might be with that user'ssupervisor, to prevent the originator of the content from being able toblock unwelcome contributions.

Swarm 105 can also be frozen automatically. Automatic freezing of theswarm can be triggered based on metadata about the swarm. Examples ofpossible triggers can include when activity begins to reduce, after theoriginal content has been available for a threshold amount of time,after the swarm has had no activity for a threshold amount of time, whenthere is too much activity in the swarm, and so on. The statisticsgenerated about the swarm, discussed below with reference to FIGS. 2 and4, can be used to determine whether to automatically freeze the swarm.

Although FIG. 1 shows members of swarm 105 as being the only onesinvolved in swami 105, such is not a requirement of embodiments of theinvention. For example, persons who are not members of swarm 105 canview content 145, without automatically becoming members of swarm 105.

FIG. 2 shows a system to track the development of the swarm of FIG. 1.In FIG. 2, machine 205 is shown. Machine 205 can be any machine capableof engaging in swarm management. Examples of forms machine 205 can takeinclude servers, personal computers operated by a member of the swarm,and mainframes, among other possibilities. A person of ordinary skill inthe art will also recognize that machine 205 can also take other forms,such as a personal digital assistant (FDA) or cellular telephone.

Machine 205 can be connected to network 210, which allows othermachines, such as computer systems 215, 220, and 225 to interact withmachine 205. Computer systems 215, 220, and 225 can be computersoperated by other members of the swarm. Exemplary computer 215 caninclude computer 230, monitor 235, keyboard 240, and mouse 245. A personskilled in the at will recognize that other components not shown in FIG.2 can be included with computer systems 215, 250, and 225; for example,other input/output devices, such as a printer. In addition, FIG. 2 doesnot show some of the conventional internal components of computersystems 215, 250, and 225; for example, a central processing unit,memory, storage, etc. Finally, although FIG. 2 shows computer systems215, 250, and 225 as a conventional desktop computer, a person skilledin the art will recognize that computer systems 215, 250, and 225 can bealso any type of machine or computing device capable of providing theservices attributed herein to computer systems 215, 250, and 225,including, for example, a laptop computer, PDA, or a cellular telephone.

Network 210, which is shown as connecting machine 205 with computersystems 215, 220, and 225, can be any type of network. For example,network 210 can include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN), and the Internet, among other possibilities. A person of ordinaryskill in the art will recognize that network 210 can also includecombinations of different network types, and can include varieties ofboth wireless and wireline networks. In addition, while FIG. 2 showsthree computer systems 215, 220, and 225 connected to network 210 (inaddition to machine 205), a person of ordinary skill in the art willrecognize that there can be any number of machines connected to network210.

To support swarm management, machine 205 includes input 250, swarmdeveloper 255, content validator 260, and statistics generator 265.Input 250 provides a way for machine 205 to receive information aboutthe development of a swarm. For example, input 250 can receive thecontent from its originator, and additional information responsive tothe content from the other members of the swarm.

Swarm developer 255 provides a way for machine 205 to develop the swarm.As discussed above, the swarm includes the original content, anyadditional information (including changes to the original content,comments about the original content, and other metadata) provided bymembers of the swarm, and the members of the swarm themselves. Swarmdeveloper 255 tracks the activities that relate to the original content,and develops the swarm based on those activities.

Content validator 260 uses the swarm to validate the original content.As members of the swarm respond to the content and additionalinformation, the swarm might move the focus from the original contentinto a new direction. If the direction of the swarm changes from thedirection of the original content, this change in focus suggests thatthe original content was not valid. Conversely, if the swarm does notchange the content from its original direction, the swarm can be said tohave validated the original content.

Consider the following example. Assume that a particular originalcontent suggests using an array as a data structure in a particularprogramming situation. After the swarm has partially developed, theswarm has changed the direction of the content toward using a linkedlist instead of an array. This change of focus can be interpreted asinvalidating the original content.

FIG. 3 shows a graphical illustration of how the content validator ofFIG. 2 can validate content based on the swarm of FIG. 1. In FIG. 3,original content 140 had a direction (angle and magnitude), shown byvector 305. In contrast, content 145 (the modified content after theswarm has developed) has a different direction (angle and magnitude),shown by vector 310. If the change in direction of the content, asrepresented by vectors 305 and 310, is significant, then contentvalidator 260 can be interpreted, as invalidating the content, as shownby result 315. On the other hand, if the change in the direction of thecontent, as represented by vectors 305 and 310, is not significant, thencontent validator 260 can be interpreted as validating the content, asshown by result 315. The change in direction between the content 140 and145 can be ascertained by measuring the angle and magnitude betweenvectors 305 and 310 using a common coordinate system.

One might wonder how content 140 and 145 can be represented as vectors305 and 310, respectively. If the meaning of the terms in content 140and 145 can be represented mathematically, one can construct vectorsthat represent the overall meaning of content 140 and 145, and thenmeasure the change in direction of the contents. Examples of bow adirection of content can be ascertained can be found in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/109,804, titled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FORSEMANTIC CHARACTERIZATION OF GENERAL CONTENT STREAMS AND REPOSITORIES”,filed Jul. 2, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,619, issued Aug. 22, 2000,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/512,963, titled “CONSTRUCTION,MANIPULATION, AND COMPARISON OF A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL SEMANTIC SPACE”,filed Feb. 25, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,152,031, issued. Dec. 19, 2006,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/615,726, titled. “METHOD ANDMECHANISM FOR THE CREATION, MAINTENANCE, AND COMPARISON OF SEMANTICABSTRACTS”, filed Jul. 13, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,197,451, issuedMar. 27, 2007, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/653,713, titled“INTENTIONAL-STANCE CHARACTERIZATION OF A GENERAL CONTENT STREAM ORREPOSITORY”, filed Sep. 5, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,286,977, issuedOct. 23, 2007, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/691,629, titled“METHOD AND MECHANISM FOR SUPERPOSITIONING STATE VECTORS IN A SEMANTICABSTRACT”, filed Oct. 18, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,389,225, issued Jun.17, 2008, all of which are commonly assigned with this application andare incorporated by reference herein. Another example of how a directionof content can be ascertained can be found in U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/271,079, titled “ACTIVELY MANAGING DATA IN ACOMPUTING SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT”, filed Jul. 16, 2009, which is commonlyassigned with this application and is incorporated by reference herein.A person of ordinary skill in the art will also recognize that there areother ways in which directions for content 140 and 145 can beascertained and compared.

Returning to FIG. 2, statistics generator 265 generates statistics aboutthe swarm. More detail about statistics generator 265 is shown in FIG.4. Among the statistics that can be generated about a swarm are size 405of the swarm (that is, the number of members in the swarm), growth rate410 and death rate 415 of the swarm (that is, how the size of the swarmchanges over time), longevity 420 of the swarm (that is, how long hasthe swarm been around), intensity 425 of the swarm (that is, how muchactivity there is in the swarm at any particular moment in time),persistence 430 of the swarm (that is, how long the swarm has hadcontinuous activity), and direction 435 of the swarm. As discussed abovewith reference to FIG. 1, the statistics generated by statisticsgenerator 265 can also become part of the swarm. The statisticsgenerated by statistics generator 265 can be considered metadata for thecontent.

When a user interface is used to enable members of the swarm to use thecontent, the user interface can reflect the activity of the swarm. Forexample, color, size, motion, and audio and video segments can be usedto reflect the state or the swarm. For example, as the swarm becomesmore active, the amount of space in the interface devoted to the contentcan increase, as can the size of the font used. This increased size andfont draws attention to the content, reflecting that the swarm isbecoming more active. Or, color can be used to reflect the direction ofthe swarm relative to the direction of the original content. If theswarm has the same direction as the content, the content can be coloredgreen; if the swarm starts to move in a different direction, the colorof the content can shift to red, reflecting the changing direction ofthe swarm.

The user interface can also show the members of the swarm, so thatindividual members can see who else is in the swarm, in some embodimentsof the invention. Individual members can also control whether theircontributions to the swarm are editable. For example, one member can adda comment and flag that the comment cannot be edited.

FIG. 5 shows the content of FIG. 1 being modified by other members ofthe swarm. In FIG. 5, detail about content 145 is shown. Content 145includes original content 505 and 510, and additional content 515, 520,and 525. As can be seen from comments 505 and 510, the contentoriginator had suggested a meeting at 9:00 am in the main conferenceroom. Comment 515 suggested changing the time of the meeting to 10:00am. Comment 520 suggested taking the meeting offsite, as the mainconference room was not available; comment 525 suggested The Copy Shopfor the meeting.

Given that comments 515, 520, and 525 were not part of the originalcontent (as they were contributed by other users), a person of ordinaryskill in the art will recognize that comment 510 originally followedcomment 505; comment 515 was inserted later. Thus, comments 515, 520,and 525 were inserted inline into the original content. This shows thatcontent developed by the swarm, rather than being simply“afterthoughts”, can be put directly into the content, in an appropriatelocation. For example, it makes much more sense to include a request tochange the time of the meeting (comment 515) directly alter the originaltime proposal (comment 505), than making the request later in thecontent.

Although FIG. 5 only shows comments being added, without changing theoriginal content, a person of ordinary skill in the art will recognizethat comments can actually edit the original content. For example,instead of comment 515 merely requesting a change in the time of themeeting, the contributor of comment 515 could have just edited the timein comment 505. In a similar manner, later comments can be edited. Forexample, instead, of adding comment 525, the contributor of comment 525could have edited comment 520 to specify The Copy Shop as the place forthe meeting.

But if content can be edited, how is a person reviewing the content toknow what was the original content was and what was later added oredited? While comments 515, 520, and 525 can be indented to reflecttheir being later additions, a direct edit would not show any suchindent. To allow swarm members to be able to locate what was changed,when, and by whom, the swarm can include a complete history of thecontent, tracking and storing what changes were made, when they weremade, and by whom. By tracking and storing this information, members ofthe swarm can then replay the history of the swami, enabling the membersto view what changed, when, and by whom. Members of the swarm can alsofilter the replay of the history, so that they can review only changesmade during a particular time only changes made to a particular subsetof the content, or only changes made by particular swarm members, amongother possibilities.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of a procedure for tracking the development ofthe swarm of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the invention. Atblock 605, the system receives content from a user. AT block 610, thesystem tracks the use of the content by others. This “use” can includereview of the content, the addition of comments, changing the content,and so on. At block 615, the system can receive additional informationfrom the other users. At block 620, the system can develop a swarmaround the content.

At block 625, the system can generate statistics about the swarm. Block625 can be omitted, as shown by dashed arrow 630. At block 635, thesystem can validate the content using the swarm. At block 640, thesystem can use a direction of the swarm to validate the content. Block640 can be omitted, as shown by dashed arrow 645. Finally, at block 650,the system can freeze the swarm, prohibiting further changes. Block 650can be omitted, as shown by dashed arrow 655.

The following discussion is intended to provide a brief, generaldescription of a suitable machine in which certain aspects of theinvention can be implemented. Typically, the machine includes as systembus to which is attached processors, memory, e.g., random access memory(RAM), read-only memory (ROM), or other state preserving medium, storagedevices, a video interface, and input/output interface ports. Themachine can be controlled, at least in part, by input from conventionalinput devices, such as keyboards, mice, etc., as well as by directivesreceived from another machine, interaction with a virtual reality (VR)environment, biometric feedback, or other input signal. As used herein,the term “machine” is intended to broadly encompass a single machine, ora system of communicatively coupled machines or devices operatingtogether. Exemplary machines include computing devices such as personalcomputers, workstations, servers, portable computers, handheld devices,telephones, tablets, etc., as well as transportation devices, such asprivate or public transportation, e.g., automobiles, trains, cabs, etc.

The machine can include embedded controllers, such as programmable ornon-programmable logic devices or arrays, Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits, embedded computers, smart cards, and the like. Themachine can utilize one or more connections to one or more remotemachines, such as through as network interface, modem, or othercommunicative coupling. Machines can be interconnected by way of aphysical and/or logical network, such as an intranet, the Internet,local area networks, wide area networks, etc. One skilled in the artwill appreciate that network communication can utilize various wiredand/or wireless short range or long range carriers and protocols,including radio frequency (RF), satellite, microwave, Institute ofElectrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 545.11, Bluetooth, optical,infrared, cable, laser, etc.

The invention can be described by reference to or in conjunction withassociated data including functions, procedures, data structures,application programs, instructions, etc. which, when accessed by amachine, result in the machine performing tasks or defining abstractdata types or low-level hardware contexts. Associated data can be storedin, for example, the volatile and/or non-volatile memory, e.g., RAM,ROM, etc., or in other storage devices and their associated storagemedia, including hard-drives, floppy-disks, optical storage, tapes,flash memory, memory sticks, digital video disks, biological storage,and other tangible, physical storage media. Associated data can also bedelivered over transmission environments, including the physical and/orlogical network, in the form of packets, serial data, parallel data,propagated signals, etc., and can be used in a compressed or encryptedformat. Associated data can be used in a distributed environment, andstored locally and/or remotely for machine access.

Having described and illustrated the principles of the invention withreference to illustrated embodiments, it will be recognized that theillustrated embodiments can be modified in arrangement and detailwithout departing from such principles, and can be combined, in anydesired manner. And although the foregoing discussion has focused onparticular embodiments, ether configurations are contemplated. Inparticular, even though expressions such as “according to an embodimentof the invention” or the like are used herein, these phrases are meantto generally reference embodiment possibilities, and are not intended tolimit the invention to particular embodiment configurations. As usedherein, these terms can reference the same or different embodiments thatare combinable into other embodiments.

Consequently, in view of the wide variety of permutations to theembodiments described herein, this detailed description and accompanyingmaterial is intended to be illustrative only, and should not be taken aslimiting the scope of the invention. What is claimed as the invention,therefore, is all such modifications as can come within the scope andspirit of the following claims and equivalents thereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method residing in a non-transitory computerreadable storage medium for execution on a processor to perform themethod, comprising: detecting, by the processor, content that is to beassociated with a swarm; initiating, by the processor, the swarm for thecontent; tracking, by the processor, the swarm to record informationregarding: the content, additional content provided by members of theswarm, member information for the members, and activity information foractions by the members on the content; recording, by the processor,statistics for the swarm, wherein the statistics for the swarm includeone or more of: a size of the swarm, a growth rate of the swarm, a deathrate of the swarm, an intensity of the swarm, a longevity of the swarm,a direction of the swarm relative to the content, and a persistence ofthe swarm; including, by the processor, the statistics as metadata forthe content, wherein the metadata is part of the swarm; freezing, by theprocessor, the swarm to prevent changes to the swarm based on themetadata indicating that the swarm has a number of activities for athreshold amount of time and determined from the statistics; andunfreezing, by the processor, the swarm based on a request from a swarmuser that is permitted by policy.
 2. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising, using, by the processor, the swarm to validate the content.3. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting further includes receivingthe content from a particular member.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereindetecting further includes finding the content being posted at a networksite being monitored.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein recordingfurther includes maintaining the statistics as one or more of: a totalnumber of the members for the swarm, a growth rate for the swarm, adeath rate for the swarm, a longevity rate for the swarm, an activityintensity rate for the swarm, a direction of the swarm, and apersistence rate for the swarm.
 6. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising, invalidating, by the processor, a portion of the content,when a modification being attempted to the portion goes against a stateddirection for the swarm.
 7. The method of claim 1 further comprising,validating, by the processor the content based on a current direction ofthe swarm.
 8. An article, comprising a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium, said storage medium having stored thereon executableinstructions that, when executed by a machine, result in: identifying apiece of content associated with multiple members; tracking adevelopment of the piece of content and actions of the multiple members;developing a swarm around the piece of content for the tracking;maintaining statistics for the swarm, wherein the statistics for theswarm include one or more of: a size of the swarm, a growth rate of theswarm, a death rate of the swarm, an intensity of the swarm, a longevityof the swarm, a direction of the swarm relative to content associatedwith the swarm, and a persistence of the swarm, and including thestatistics as metadata for the content, and wherein the metadata is partof the swarm; freezing the swarm to prevent changes to the swarm basedon the metadata indicating that the swarm a number of activities for athreshold amount of time and determined based on the statistics; andunfreezing the swarm based on a request from a swarm user that ispermitted by policy.
 9. The article of claim 8, wherein the identifyinginstructions further include receiving the piece of content from aninitial authoring member of the content.
 10. The article of claim 8,wherein identifying instructions further include automaticallyidentifying the piece of content by detecting its presence on a networksite or network service being actively monitored.